Arcadia Page - I Want to Do All the Things: Finding Balance as a Polymath, Multipotentialite & Renaissance Soul

Introduction

I love working with new ideas. New story ideas, new craft ideas, new art techniquesif it's exciting and new, I am there. I enjoy learning, trying a variety of things, and gaining new skills.

Borrowing from the Wikipedia definition and adding a bit of my own, a polymath is a person who has knowledge and skills over a wide range of disciplines, and who uses the insights gained from their learning to solve problems and create.

Other terms that are thrown around for a person who fits this description:

• Multipotentialite
• Renaissance soul
• Scanner
• Jack of All Trades (Master of None)

Add any other terms you can think of here...

My favorite terms are polymath and multipotentialite. I love the term multipotentialite because I feel like it embraces the idea that I am a person of multiple potentials. Yes, I am the writer, but I can also be the artist and the singer. I have the potential to live many different lives. I love the term polymath because it's easier to spell.

However, as a multipotentialite (I'm going to use this term interchangeably with polymath, depending on how lazy I feel), here are the top problems I face:

1. Project overload

2. Losing track of projects

3. Difficulty making time to work on projects

4. Difficulty keeping up with my own pace of learning

So the goal of this short book is to share how I've dealt with these issues. Hopefully, my findings will help you find some solutions of your own.

Reducing Project Overload

N ot too long ago I read the book Goodbye Things by Fumio Susaki. I procrastinated reading this book because on the surface it looked like extreme minimalism. But when I finally got around to reading it, I was so inspired that I've read it twice and plan to read it again.

Susaki shares how before letting go of his stuff, he spent much of his time shopping, watching TV, browsing social media, and trying to impress people with his music, movie, and camera collections. However, after letting go of his stuff, he started traveling and learning all kinds of new skills.

As a polymath, I'm always learning new skills. What amazed me is how his physical stuff stood in the way of his learning new skills. By letting go of these things he became a multipotentialite. He was probably one all alongit's just that he couldn't focus on what he truly wanted to learn because of all the distractions. Once he let go of all that stuff, he started living the multipotentialite life!

Along with being a boost to my personal goal of living a simpler life, his story helped me to see that sometimes, my collection of polymath projects can be a mental burden.

In his book, Susaki brings out how each item you own creates a todo list. Dishes need to be washed. Computers need to be backed up and wiped down. Light fixtures need new lightbulbs.

The same was true for my projects. Each project I start has its own todo list attached to it.

For example, I used to have a rack full of half-done sewing projects. I had a pair of old jeans I wanted to make into a bag, and a blouse I wanted to restyle into a pillow....all kinds of stuff.

As a result, I had not used my sewing machine in over a year because my mind was overloaded with sewing projects. It was more than I could process. So I didn't process any of those projects. Instead, they sat there for years.

Even if I hid those projects on a shelf or in a closet, the heavy todo list remained. I had only one option to reduce this kind of overload.

After reading his book, I let go of all those projects except for one. The one project I held on to was a favorite blouse that I was repairing using the sashiko method. Progress was slow because I'm new to sashiko, but it's something that I am excited about learning. Also, I was looking forward to wearing my favorite blouse again.

This letting go process was not a thoughtless, "Throw out all of the undone projects!"

Instead, I realized that:

• Some unfinished projects no longer reflect who I am.
• Some unfinished projects no longer reflect what I want.
• Some unfinished projects can be made into something new, but remixing doesn't feel appealing when you have a lot of old stuff.

I had to look for projects that still made me say, "YES!"

Even if I was like, "Well, I don't know..." or "I sort of like this..." I decided to let it go. If it wasn't a YESif it didn't spark absolute joyit was a "No."

And after six months of making painfully slow progress on fixing my blouse, I was able to wrap it up one month after letting go of my things.

I also let go of other projects besides my sewing ones, and I was also able to reach another difficult goal: moving my blog from Blogger to a static blog on Github. This involved learning more code than I already knew, so it was an enjoyable challenge.

Letting go of so many old, abandoned projects was scary, but I'm glad I did it.

Letting go of the old let in the new.

And sometimes when Im overloaded with shiny new things, I remind myself that my best idea is the one Im working on now.

Questions to ask when reducing projects:

• It this project related to something else that I want to learn?
• Do I really have time for this project? Do I currently have the funds and resources for it?
• Is there a way I can simplify this project or make it smaller?
• Does this project fit who I am now at this moment?

Managing Projects

I 'm slowly improving at managing my projects. After reading the fantastic Paused to Prolific by K. Webster, I am currently working on four writing projects (this includes projects that require illustration) at the same time.